Jerk Chicken Wings Grilled in A Foil Packet

Happy Memorial Day!

Yay to the official arrival of grilling season!

I've talked about my love of grilling season before.... I love the smell AND taste of grilled foods. It's one of the best parts of summer.

And did you know that you can pretty much grill everything in a foil packet right on your grill? 

Could grilling get anymore simpler?




































These wings had the perfect amount of spicy balanced out by the sweet from the lime juice. And though they aren't grilled directly on the grill grates, they still have that 'fresh-off-the-grill' taste that I so desire, with nice grill marks and all.

Jerk Chicken Wings Grilled in A Foil Packet
ever-so-slightly adapted from Food Network 

• 8 chicken wings, split
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 tablespoons jerk seasoning
• juice from 1 lime (or half a lime)
• nonstick foil

Toss 8 split chicken wings, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, and 3 tablespoons jerk seasoning on a sheet of foil. Form a packet around the wings. Grill over high heat, turning once or twice to prevent burning, for 25 minutes. Top with cilantro and lime juice.

Printable Recipe

All photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy SII phone because I didn't have a memory card for the dslr.

What's on your Memorial Day menu this year? Looking for more ideas? Well, here's some.

Tequila Marinated Grilled Chicken + Guacamole Tacos

Grilled Corn with Chipotle Butter and Lime Salt

Spicy Chipotle Barbecue Sausages

Grilled Filets with Bourbon Butter

Butterfinger Ice Cream Pie

Patriotic Fruit Skewers

Cilantro Jalapeno Limeade

Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad (need to get an updated picture!)

(These photos got deleted from my posts so I need to update these posts with photos, sorry! But the recipes are still da bomb!)

Cherry Limeade Slushies

Patriotic Taco Salad

4th of July Toast

Sauteed Corn, Bacon, and Green Onions

Hope you all have a great Memorial Day. I'm enjoying mine with a day off work, time with family, and some grilling fun! Maybe even some cornhole :) And of course being grateful for those who've served our country, especially those who gave their lives. Brave, brave honorable souls.

Linking up here.

Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Countdown to 2013: Best Main Dishes of 2012

I'm a little late joining up, but here's my roundup of my main dishes of 2012!

Well, not so much a roundup... Basically I've learned that I didn't post many savory recipes at all this year! Oops. It is soooo on my resolution list for 2013 to be better with blogging recipes! I have tons of pictures on my camera, just haven't blogged about them.

So here are two delicious mains for you :)
 

Grilled Filets with Bourbon Butter

Ranch Taco Salad

More roundup posts coming :)


Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Martha Mondays - Chicken Fried Rice

Wassssssup?!?

As always, I hope you all shared a great weekend with your friends and families doing the things you love! I sure was fortunate enough to... spending Saturday evening celebrating my boss and future-aunt-in-law's birthday at my future-mom-in-law's house with delicious Taco Casa and the final episode of The Wire.

And some good cookin' and cornhole at my Mama and Daddy's house on Sunday. I was so glad Pj was able to come, as well as my brother. We laughed, we played, we goofed, we capped, we argued, we loved. I sincerely love being around my family, and having PJ be a part of it. He fits in so well... My brother and dad both like him. I love that he's a part of the family. And of course we indulged on some delish ribs, mac and cheese, greens, green beans, corn, beer chicken, bbq chicken, and rolls. Gotta love that good Southern cookin :)

Anyhoo, I'm here sharing a basic yet delicious Chinese recipe with you, for Martha Mondays! A special thanks to Brette for hosting :O)  PJ and I both had kinda ruled this recipe out, thinking it would be nothing special at all. But boy were we wrong.

Like last time I tried to look for scallions, we couldn't find them at our local grocer. Still no luck this time around either. But we did find green onions, which are pretty much the same thing. 

We decided to cook the frozen snow peas first (since they weren't fresh) and cooked them in the microwave according to the directions on the package.

Let me tell you, we both were super surprised at how much we each liked it!!! Like, for reals. If you like Chinese food, and if you like chicken fried rice, I don't see how you couldn't like this! 

Chicken Fried Rice

adapted from Martha Stewart

• 1 cup long-grain white rice
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts (12 oz total)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 green onions, rinsed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 1 tsp grated and peeled fresh ginger
• 1/2 cup diced red pepper (I had a large pepper and used 3/4 of it)
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup frozen snow peas, cooked according to package directions

Cook rice according to package instructions. Set aside. Pound breasts with a mallet until 1/4 inch thick. Cut into strips, each 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide). Season with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Cook chicken until just cooked through. Transfer to a plate.

Reduce heat to low and add remaining tablespoon oil. Add the eggs; Just as whites begin to set, stir to scramble. Add scallions and ginger; cook 1 minute. Add reserved rice and bell pepper; cook 2 minutes. In a separate bowl, stir together the soy sauce, sugar, and stock; add it to the skillet. Add the cooked snow peas and reserved, cooked chicken; cook until heated through.

Printable Recipe

Linked up to:
Mouthwatering Mondays
Hunk of Meat Mondays 
Delicious Dishes
Homemaker Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
MAFF Monday
Mangia Monday
Sharing Monday
Made By You Monday
Recipe Sharing Monday
Makin' You Crave Monday
On the Menu Monday

This Chicken Fried Rice packed so much flavor, and just because I love the saltiness of soy sauce, I added a couple of squirts of soy sauce to my rice and chicken at the end. It really was surprisingly flavorful and delicious! I was very glad that I chose this recipe, in fact. 

I'm not sure if homemade Chinese food tastes better than the original.... that would probably be a sin!! But man is it so delicious and less expensive and not very difficult to make. So please make this traditional Chicken Fried Rice recipe soon, and very soon.

Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

The Crazy Cooking Challenge - and Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

I'm very happy to be participating in a fun monthly linky party hosted by Tina from Mom's Crazy Cooking, called Crazy Cooking Challenge, where each month there is a different food item featured and we each make a recipe using that featured food item and blog about it on the same day. But it's gotta come from a fellow blogger, which is totally fine by me because I have tons of mac and cheese recipes bookmarked from blogs that I stalk visit. Kinda like the Secret Recipe Club that I'm in, except that it's not a secret, and it's a personal challenge instead of being tied to someone else's blog. Either way, I'm game!

The first month, we are all making macaroni and cheese recipes. I couldn't pass that up, as I'm definitely a mac and cheese kinda gurl. Like, I'll try pretty much any kind of mac and cheese. And I'll expect it to be good, because it's mac and cheese for crying out loud! :) I chose a wonderful mac and cheese recipe from Christy's blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything. Have you guys checked out her blog? If you have, I'm sure you've fallen in love with all of her creations like I have. I love her food, I love her photography, I just love her site! So it was no surprise when I found this delectable mac and cheese dish on her site.

Buffalo Chicken Macaroni and Cheese

slightly adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

• 3.5 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 lb (8 oz) elbow macaroni
• 1/2 of a small Vidalia onion, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3/8 cup hot sauce, divided
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 and 1/4 cup half and half
• 1/2 lb sharp cheddar, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 oz pepper jack cheese, shredded
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 inch dish with cooking spray.


In a large pot, cook pasta according to directions on package. Drain. Return pasta to the large pot.


Melt 1.5 tbsp butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the cooked chicken and garlic and cook for 2 minuets. Add 1/4 cup hot sauce and simmer until thickened for about a minute.


Melt 1 tbsp butter in a medium pot on medium heat. Add flour and mustard, stir. Add half and half, and remaining 1/8 cup hot sauce and stir for 2 minutes. Add cheddar and pepper jack cheese, then sour cream and whisk.


In the large pasta pot, add the the chicken mixture and cheese sauce in with the pasta and toss to combine well. Pour into the 9x13 greased baking dish.


Melt remaining 1 tbsp butter in a bowl and microwave until melted. Add panko bread crumbs, blue cheese, and parsley and stir. Pour over the mac and cheese and bake for 30-40 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Printable Recipe

The only change we made was to half the original recipe, as well as up the chicken amount by a bit. We halved it, and we still got a casserole dish-worth out of it! So it was plenty for the both of us. We loved this macaroni and cheese so much. I love the addition of the blue cheese and panko topping - I always enjoy blue cheese to my buffalo anything, and the panko added a nice texture. I was surprised how much I loved the crunch from the celery, because usually I'm not too keen on celery. But it worked great in this dish. I've tried a different buffalo macaroni and cheese recipe also which I still need to blog about, and this one is my favorite so far. Definitely a keeper!

Won't you come join me at the Crazy Cooking Challenge? October is Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes!  

I'm linking up to a new linky that I was just told about - Simply Delish Saturday. Thanks for inviting me over, KB and Whitesnake! I'm also adding this to Miranda's Mac and Cheese Quest.

Oh, and don't forget to visit these other awesome blogs and click "Like" to vote for the Ultimate Macaroni and Cheese Recipe! I'd appreciate a vote.... I'm #16 on the blog hop below :)

Peace, and bacon grease!

 

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Tomato Garlic Pork Loin Roast

Cooking large meats sometimes makes me nervous. I don't want to under or over cook it. I mean, I can work with an undercooked meat. But once you overcook it, it's a wrap. It becomes tough and dry, and who wants to waste a giant piece of meat?! Not me! So the thought of messing up attempting to cook a large piece of meat has intimidated me a bit. But no more. Granted, I wasn't cooking a large turkey or whole beef tenderloin (I can't even imagine messing either one of those up!), I was only cooking a 1.75 lb pork loin roast. But it still seemed large, and therefore somewhat of a challenge. And I still wouldn't say I know how to cook a pork loin roast perfectly every time. The length of time to cook certain meats can vary depending on how big the meat is. So I like to use the times on the original recipe as guidelines, as well as compare to other pork loin roast recipes on the web, with a side of my own judgment. Because, like I said, I would hate hate hate to overcook such a large, nice piece of meat. While this roast wasn't perfect, it was decent... I'm not rushing to make it again though. I want to keep practicing with different recipes and one day cook a pork roast to the perfect tenderness and juiciness. But at least I got my first try out of the way!

Tomato Garlic Pork Loin Roast

adapted from Living the Gourmet

• 1.5 - 2 lb pork loin roast
• 3 cloves of garlic
• handful of fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup grape tomatoes
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chicken broth, + more for basting, if desired
• 1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the garlic, parsley, tomatoes, olive oil, and pepper in a food processor and pulse a few times to chop.

Place the pork in a baking pan and top with the chopped tomato mixture. Add 1/4 cup chicken broth to the pan with the bay leaf and roast in the oven. Add more broth to the pan, basting pork, if desired.

Bake about 25-30 minutes per pound, or until temperature reaches about 145-150 degrees. Let rest for 15 minutes, as pork will continue to cook to about 155-160 degrees.



Printable Recipe

As you can see, we served this with some red potatoes. I think I would have preferred it with a brown coating from a quick sear. But I did skim over a few different pork loin recipes and none of them said to sear it first, so obviously I don't know what I'm talking about :) Everything about the coating sounds appealing... tomatoes, garlic, and herbs, so why didn't I like it as much as I feel I should have? Maybe it was the quality of the pork loin roast we bought. Or maybe the cooking time was off? Is 25-30 minutes per pound accurate? I'm not sure really. But I'm hopeful and will check out other pork loin roast recipes to see if those are more to my likings.

Does anybody have any delicious pork loin roast recipes to share? How do you feel about pork roasts?

Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Chicken Corn Chowder

Happy weekend! It can't come soon enough, can it? I'm back with another comforting meal. This soup, it's a keeper. I wasn't sure how we would feel about it, but it had so much flavor. I love the sweetness of the corn, the heartiness of the potatoes, the creaminess. And you guys already know how I feel about bacon. I don't think I even need to go there.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. We didn't add the celery. I used 4 slices of center cut bacon. I used 4 small red potatoes instead of the canned kind called for in the recipe, and boiled them first for 20 minutes. And added some salt too to taste.

Chicken Corn Chowder

Adapted from It's a Keeper

• 4 slices center cut bacon, diced into 1 inch squares
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 4 cups frozen corn
• 4 cups half and half
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 4 small red potatoes
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
• salt, to taste

In a large pot, bring cold water and a pinch of salt to a boil. Boil potatoes for 20 minutes or so. Remove and dice potatoes.

Meanwhile, in a separate large pot, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon, drain the fat leaving 2 tbsp in the pot. Add chicken and cook over medium heat until no longer pink and cooked through. Add onion and bell pepper and saute for 2 minutes. Stir in flour. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in half and half. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Puree 2 cups of corn in a blender. Add to the pot. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally for 1 minute. Stir in pepper, potatoes, and remaining corn. Heat through. Stir in bacon. Serve immediately. Season with salt, to taste.

Printable Recipe

Linking up to: 

Party Mindie Style Weekend Link Up

Summer Lovin' Weekend Soiree

Recipes to Run On

Life's a Picnic Party

This is the perfect autumn or winter comfort food to warm you up on a cool night. I'm not a fan of the cold winter by any means, but this soup makes winter a little more bearable. Disregard the fact that I am blogging about this in the middle of summer. I made it back when it was cold out. I would still make this any time during the year, though! It's THAT good.

*Update: While I'm over here going on and on about how this is a fall/winter meal, my friend over at Scrambled Henfruit made me realize that this is just as much a summer meal as it is warming comfort meal. "Think of how good it will be with fresh summer sweet corn!", she commented. Oh Betty, you are so right. And thanks for giving me a perfect reason to make this in the summer  :)


Come join SoupaPalooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by KitchenAid, Red Star Yeast, and Le Creuset!!!

Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Chicken Caesar Wraps

 

Do you guys like caesar salads? I do. For awhile there, they were my favorite salad. They may not be the healthiest salad option, but they are one of the tastiest. I was geeked to see this wrap version! Genius.

And it doesn't require a lot of work, besides pre-cooking the chicken, chopping the croutons, and breaking up the lettuce. You may have to grate your cheese if you don't buy the already-grated kind. Still not very much work though, don't you agree?

So first cook your chicken and then cut it up into cubes. Meanwhile, combine the dressing, cheese, garlic powder, and pepper in a large bowl. Then add that cooked chicken, the romaine, and chopped croutons. Mix it up....

.... then spread it evenly over each tortilla. I used regular white flour tortillas. The original recipe calls for whole wheat tortillas, which is obviously better for you. If you are healthier and stronger willed than I am, please use the whole wheat tortillas. Don't follow my bad example.

And I apologize for the slightly blurry photos. The food was still good though!

Chicken Caesar Wraps

slightly adapted from Taste of Home

*  Yields 6 servings

• 3/4 cup Caesar salad dressing
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breast
• 2 cups torn romaine
• 3/4 cup Caesar salad croutons, coarsely chopped
• 6 flour tortillas (8 inches)

In a large bowl, combine the dressing, cheese, garlic powder, and pepper. Add the cooked chicken, romaine, and croutons. Spoon 2/3 cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up.


Printable Recipe

I'm linking up to:

Tasty Tuesdays @ 33 Shades of Green

Hearth N Soul Hop
Tuesday Night Supper Club
Tuesdays at the Table
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
What's On Your Plate?
Delectable Tuesday
Dr. Laura's Tasty Tuesday
Totally Tasty Tuesdays
Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits
Show Me What Ya Got
What's Cooking Wednesday
Recipes I Can't Wait to Try
Whatcha Makin' Wednesdays
What I Ate Wednesday
Made it on Monday
Whisking Wednesdays
What's on the Menu Wednesday
What I Whipped Up Wednesday
Cast Party Wednesday
Recipe Swap Thursday
Tasty Tradition
Full Plate Thursday
Cooking Thursday
Simple Lives Thursday
Frugal Food Thursday
It's a Keeper Thursday
What's Cooking Thursday
Twisted Thursday
These Chicks Cooked Link Party
Making It With Allie
Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum
Friday Potluck
Food Trip Friday
Friday Favorites
Fat Camp Friday
 Fun With Food Friday
Food on Fridays
Food Friday
Foodie Friday @ Little Brick Ranch
Friday Food Fight
Feasting in Fellowship Fridays

This definitely qualifies as a weeknight, work night meal. Gotta love those. You could have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. Or it would even make for a perfect lunch. So if you're ever tired of the same old salad, try a wrap!

Peace, and bacon grease!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad